Pliocene Insect Herbivory Dynamics in Central Europe as Key to the Future

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Torsten Wappler
• Subject Area: Palaeontology
• Term: from 2014 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 259412495

Recent studies on plant-insect interactions in deep time have shown that global change components, such as climate change, can change biodiversity and trophic interactions. They have also shown that biodiversity loss may greatly impede trophic interactions and change the overall food web structure of ecological systems. Most of these studies were situated in the early Cenozoic were major climate shifts took place. The Neogene and particularly the Pliocene have never been subject to such a detailed investigation on plant/insect associations. As being among the most famous plant localities in the world and being one of the richest Pliocene floras in Europe, the Upper Pliocene Lagerstätte Willershausen is an ideal setting for the evaluations of relationships among global climate, atmospheric CO2, and global change on multitrophic interactions and biodiversity under conditions significantly warmer than today, but with a similar palaeogeographic configuration. Furthermore, the project covers also general effects on multitrophic interactions, such as host plant use and conservation of host-taxon associations, which may often be triggered by geographic shifts or climatic changes that alter the biotic environment. As Fagaceae (beech family) are a common component around the acient Willershausen lake, the fossil leaves allow an analysis of phylogenetic patterns in the evolution of oak associations that seems to be driven by their long-term evolutionary history, with the most species-rich lineages of galling insects - the oak gallwasps (Hymenoptera, Cynipidae, Cynipini).

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: France, Hungary, Sweden
• Participating Persons: Dr. György Csóka; Dr. Thomas Denk; Dr. André Nel